Our Home: An Update

Progress on our home, eight months in

It’s been a while since I’ve really shared what our home looks like, so I thought it was high time to share the progress we’ve made in making it our own, new ideas on what we’d like to see done, and our next steps. So here we go!

(To see what things looked like when we first moved in, you can find my first post here and a progress post here!)

Kitchen

We haven’t made all that much more progress in the kitchen, but what we’ve done has been super impactful! I love starting my mornings making coffee in here and cooking at night with Will. Having moved from city to city over the past nine years, we’ve always had tiny, cramped, or barely functioning kitchens, so I don’t at all take this space for granted 🙂

• Paint cabinets white (Paint color – I went with a warmer white too keep things from looking to cold and sterile)
• Replace cabinet hardware (found here – while there is a myriad of gorgeous hardware out there, we were on a tight budget after spending a lot to have the cabinets painted…and with the age of our home and all the moulding work I wanted to pick something fairly simple yet classic. The drill holes from the previous hardware were also odd sizing, which limited the pool I could choose from.)
• Create eating area with round top kitchen table (found here)
• Invest in classic bentwood chairs (found here; similar less expensive versions here and here)
• Hang light fixture to further define dining area (from Hawkins New York; similar here and here)
• New countertops (saving up for this now!)
• New backsplash (saving up for this now!)
• Replace stove and oven with a more streamlined version?

Living Room

The living room is hands down where the most progress has been made, and where we spend the most time as a family! While that might seem like a given, our last place was dark and felt so uninviting, we ended up spending the most of our time at home cozying up in the bedroom. Having this space to really use and enjoy has helped me compartmentalize our bedroom as a place to relax and retreat and rest, rather than a catchall where we worked, watched tv and hung out, or even had meals! I truly believe it has given me better rest when I go to bed, and has made it easier to pop out of bed in the morning to start my day. Anyways, let’s breakdown what’s been done here and what projects I still have in mind to tackle!

• Paint walls (this color) – While I went from one subtle neutral to another, it made a big difference in really refreshing the space and in shifting the undertones of the room.
• Paint heat covers white
• Hang hardware and curtains (found here and here)
• Select sofa (found here; similar here and here)
• Upgrade television and mount on far wall
• Accent chair – I currently have a vintage $35 Craigslist find as a placeholder, and while throwing a sherpa on it helps, I’m holding out for the perfect architectural crazy looking chair, whether old or new 🙂
• Accent tables – This old Urban Outfitters one has been a versatile piece but I’m ready for a better upgrade
• Coffee table (vintage)
• Bench seating (found here)
• Rug (found here)
• Storage for books / media center (found here)
• Artwork for over fireplace (not pictured, but found here)
• Add rollers or blinds to all windows for privacy
• Replace white floor lamp with better ambient light

Living Room continued

I wasn’t originally planning on doing anything with that back corner behind our placeholder chair, thinking once we got an accent chair in it might look too crowded to do anything more than a plant, but the more time that went by the more I felt like we could take advantage of the square footage over there. So my hope is to really add more artwork to make that area a strong gallery wall while giving us a little more storage and another zone for me to have fun styling 🙂

(console / decorative wooden bowl / planter)

The Office

We are about halfway there on this office, but all the functional necessities are in place, so this room will likely be our last priority as far as investing in more progress here goes. Technically, this room is listed as a second bedroom, which means there is a tiny closet in here. Will gallantly gave up the big closet in our bedroom so I can have it all to myself (I’m selfish, I know BUT I LOVE CLOTHES DEAL WITH IT). So not pictured here is a tiny closet that cleverly implements the magical offerings of Ikea’s closet organizers so Will could take advantage of every damn centimeter of that space! It was a bitch to plan and install (no wall in this place is actually a right angle, which makes any project fun) but so worth it.

• Paint (this color)
• Blinds or roller for window
• Shelving on walls?

Our bedroom

There is a decent amount of work I’d like to do in here as far as selecting new pieces, but I’d say overall the foundation is set, but many details need to be finessed…

• Paint walls (this color)
• Add mirror over dresser (found here)
• New bedding (found here)
• Find better pillows for bed
• Curtains and hardware for windows
• Blinds (I went with a dual direction light filtering cellulose shades, which we LOVE)
• Paint dresser?
• Rug
• New pouf for Gazpacho (He uses this to jump up and down off the bed, and this vintage one is completely torn up)
• New nightstands
• Have custom lampshade for vintage lamp made / replace with new lamp

Other

Our bathroom is super tiny, and we have a narrow hallway with a closet just big enough to hold a stacking washer and dryer…both of which are boring / hard to photograph. BUT another big plan we have that we’d like to attack some time soon is to have the doorway to the hallway closet expanded in order to maximize storage space. There is about a foot or more of room that we can’t access because the stackables are flush with the door-jam, and opening up the doorway would allow us to tuck away our ironing board, steamer, and vacuum cleaner, which would make a big difference in how we utilize our space. Our general goal is to  invest in new kitchen counters this summer, and the laundry expansion in late 2019 / early 2020. We’ll see how that actually plays out!

The bathroom is mostly tiled in a beige-y 90s style that isn’t wildly offensive so we are fine to live with it, but once we tackle the two major projects of the kitchen and laundry closet, we’ll revisit if we think it is worth tearing out all the tile and updating the bathroom. For now it is clean, simple, and more than functional for us, so I have no major complaints! For now, I painted the walls the same color as our study, painted the cabinetry white, and added some vintage artwork.

So that’s it, our entire current update! Making this little condo our home definitely takes time when living on a budget, and I am trying to be as careful as possible selecting the right things to invest in so that I’m not just buying things to fill our home faster, but rather picking quality, timeless pieces that we really love. I’m overall really happy with the progress and every purchase or decision has been super exciting — I love celebrating each little change rather than doing one big overhaul all at once!

Now I’ll leave you with a photo of my perfect son: General Gazpacho is happier than ever napping in sun puddles all over our place, lounging on our plush bed, and looking out the window to keep guard (he has made himself the neighborhood watch cop). HE IS PERFECT.